When she was just 15 years old, Susan Eloise Hinton began writing the book The Outsiders. Along with her studies, she continued to work on the book through her Junior year of high school, and in 1967 the book was published by Viking Press. Hinton was 18.
The book is about two rival groups at her school, the Socs (for the upper-class Socials) and the working-class Greasers. What I’ve always admired about teenage Hinton is that she wrote the book from the perspective of the Greasers in order to better understand the kids from working-class homes at her own school. Despite her honest voice and interpretation of the Greasers’ perspectives, the book has been challenged in educational spaces for decades–for gang violence, smoking, drug and alcohol use, obscenities, even (back in 1986) for the majority of the book’s characters coming from what were considered broken families.
Some consider The Outsiders the first modern YA (young adult) novel, though others credit Maureen Daly with Seventeenth Summer, published a generation earlier in 1942. Daly wrote the novel when she was 17, and published once she was in college. The story, about an innocent first love, was also controversial for its coming-of-age honesty.
Many other talented teens have published before reaching adulthood. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus, when she was 19 years old. And, I’m not just naming young women writers because it’s Women’s History Month. Let’s talk about the young men! Christopher Paolini began his novel Eragon at age 15; the book was published when Paolini was 19 and became the first in a 4-book series. John Steptoe began writing Stevie, a children’s picture book at the age 16; Stevie was published with much fanfare when Steptoe was 19 years old. Steptoe went on to illustrate 15 more books and to write 10 of them, and the American Library Association has honored Steptoe’s legacy with an annual award given to exceptional new talent in children’s literature and illustration.
Creativity, imagination, and interpretation of experiences are certainly not limited to the adult perspective. Just ask Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Stefan Bachmann, Karen Bao, Kacie Bawiec, Steph Bowe, Flavia Bujor, Lindsay Cummings, Stephanie Diaz, Katherine Ewell, Isabel Kaplan, Kody Keplinger, Cayla Kluver, Gordon Korman, Hannah Moskowitz, Alice Oseman, Helen Oyeyemi, Beth Reekles, Lucy Saxon, Samantha Shannon, Ned Vizzini, Amy Zhang, Kat Zhang…
Are you also a teen writer? Join the club! Our teen writing group, Inklings, meets every 1st and 3rd Monday of each month from 5:00 to 7:00pm. A writer is a writer no matter how young you are, no matter how new you are to writing, and sharing with other Inklings is always optional.
